HP forces swingeing pay cuts on EDS staff

Want to keep your job? Want a 30 per cent pay cut?

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HP is asking US based EDS staff to take their third pay cut of the year - this time as much as 30 per cent of their salaries.

Staff in the UK and Ireland have already been asked to take cuts of up to five per cent, and have also been encouraged to take unpaid leave over the summer.

But The Dallas Morning News reports that EDS workers are being asked to take a third pay cut this year. In February wages were cut between 2.5 per cent and 20 per cent. In April, all US and Puerto Rico based staff had to swallow a further ten per cent reduction in pay.

HP said the most recent cuts were necessary in order to get EDS pay in line with HP's and would not hit all staff.

One of several unhappy EDS workers told the paper: "I know that my career with this company is coming to an end. I can't survive after this kind of hit."

In more bad news for the ink giant, it emerged today that problems with its in-house commission system, Omega (inherited from Compaq), mean that about 2,000 of its top sales people are not getting the right monthly commissions. And they've been getting the wrong amounts for most of the year, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The paper has seen a string of emails apologising to staff for the pay problems which began in November. On the 8 June an email promised a final fix to the system. Four days later a further email apologised again for continuing problems. HP told the paper it had problems with an application but: "we expect to have this resolved shortly...".

HP sent us the following statement: "As part of the EDS integration process, a project was undertaken to ensure that employees in both EDS and HP, holding the same roles, receive comparable compensation based on market rates. While pay will not be impacted for the majority of employees as a result of this process, some employees will receive pay reductions while others will benefit from salary increases.

We understand that these changes personally impact our employees and we are working closely with them during this transition. EDS is an integral part of HP’s long term strategy to provide more services and solutions to our clients." ®